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Changes in the College of Heralds

Unto the College of Heralds, and the wider Populace of Lochac, greetings.

There are several updates and changes to the College of Heralds that I don’t believe should wait until the next CAMEL. Some of these were announced at Festival, so I would like to make them known to the wider Populace.

1. The Kingdom of Lochac has new standard ceremonies. While the Crown may choose different ceremonies to suit Their Reigns, the standard ceremonies the Kingdom uses form the foundation of much of what we do. I would like to thank my deputy Annys Blodwell, Bombarde Herald, for all her hard work on this project that has been a long time coming. A physical copy of all Kingdom ceremonies has been printed for each Barony, Shire and Canton in the Kingdom and these were distributed at Festival. The electronic version will be added to the College of Heralds website here.

2. The Heralding Policy for the Kingdom of Lochac has been updated. This was presented at Festival to the group heralds that could attend. After consultation in the meeting, I have decided that the new policy is still in draft form and is thus available for further commentary. It is my plan to formally adopt it before Midwinter Coronation, so I am asking for commentary to be sent to me before the end of May. For more, click here.

3. I recently called for commentary on two applications, one for Canon Herald and one for Powder Horn Herald. I would like to announce that I will be appointing both, however there is going to be a small change as a result of a last-minute change of plan. I would like to take a moment to explain.

As a general rule, the policy for the College of Heralds is to treat Crux deputy roles as offices – and thus limit tenure to a two-year term. This means that during the tenure of Crux every office should change. I consider appointments (and changes to the roles of Crux deputies) with this in mind. Given the need for Powder Horn Herald to work with both Canon Herald and Rocket Herald, I felt that having Canon and Powder Horn start at the same time sets up an unwise succession timetable.

For this reason, I have asked my current Canon Herald, Þorvaldr inn Suðreyski to remain in the role until Midwinter Coronation to help Powder Horn Herald settle into the role before Lord Amos Ironbeard succeeds him. I am pleased that both Þorvaldr Canon and Lord Amos have agreed to this request. Lord Amos will become Canon Herald from the weekend of Midwinter Coronation and serve until Midwinter Coronation 2020.

Lord Wei Min Cheng is officially appointed as Powder Horn Herald effective immediately. As I have a fondness for associating things with Crown events, where possible, his appointment is effective from May Crown (which was yesterday) and therefore he will be due to step down at May Crown 2020. Wei Min Powder Horn will be working with Rocket Herald and Canon Herald to ensure accuracy, integrity and fidelity of the data we store (namely in Canon Lore). Other aspects of our records management may fall under the purview of this role as it develops.

4. The College of Heralds website continues to undergo updates and changes. I have received feedback that the organisation of the site is a little hard to work out and so this is my next mission. With new ceremonies, a planned series of education material organised by Master William Castille (Quarrel Herald) and Master Padraig Lowther (Chaineshot Herald), and other updates I will be introducing a section labelled “The Library” where it will hopefully be easier to find documents, articles and other written material. This will predominantly be locally stored PDFs and articles as the old links that we have relied on have started to disappear from the Internet. Stay tuned for updates!

5. Finally, during a lull in the May Crown Tournament yesterday, I promoted Lady Adeliz Fergusson from the Shire of Adora to the personal rank of Herald for her excellent work across two Kingdoms (she is from Artemisia and they don’t seem to be able to let her go). The Kingdom of Artemisia doesn’t seem to have personal ranks for heralds, but that shouldn’t stop exemplary work from being recognised.

As always, I am proud of all my heralds in the College, and I thank you all for your hard work.